The FBI raided a Washington Post reporter’s home Wednesday as a part of an investigation into a government contractor who allegedly kept classified materials.
The journalist, Hannah Natanson, was in her Virginia home when the FBI executed the search warrant seizing her phone, personal and Washington Post laptops and a smart watch. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X Wednesday that Natanson was “obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor. The leaker is currently behind bars.”
“The Trump Administration will not tolerate illegal leaks of classified information that, when reported, pose a grave risk to our Nation’s national security and the brave men and women who are serving our country,” Bondi said.
The Privacy Protection Act that generally prevents law enforcement from searching journalist’s work unless they are suspected of a crime themselves. Natanson is not the focus of the probe that led to the search.
Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator with a top-secret security clearance, is suspected by the DOJ of taking classified material. The Post’s report on the incident pointed out that searches of journalists’ homes are abnormal. The Post also claimed the criminal complaint against Perez-Lugones does not accuse him of leaking classified material.
“It is highly unusual and aggressive for law enforcement to conduct a search on a reporter’s home,” the article stated.
In April 2025, Bondi rescinded Biden-era press protections that prevented federal investigators from searching journalist’s phone records to identify government workers who shared sensitive materials to news organizations.
Natanson covers the federal workforce and recently published a report detailing the fallout from the Trump administration’s upheaval of the workforce. She wrote that over 1000 federal workers reached out to her to express frustration and uncertainty about their offices.
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Multiple freedom of press organizations spoke out against the raid Wednesday. Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight First Amendment institute, questioned the legality of the search in a statement, saying the government must publicly justify why they took such extreme measures.
“Searches of newsrooms and journalists are hallmarks of illiberal regimes, and we must ensure that these practices are not normalized here,” Jaffer said.
